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‘Now, I shove and elbow and do karate moves and eye gouges just to get down the hallway.’

‘Ian elbowed past him silently and went upstairs.’

‘Several tradesmen elbowed their way past him as they descended into one pit or another.’

‘He elbowed his way past his brother's hands and grabbed for a sushi roll, stuffing the whole thing in his mouth.’

‘Three suitors elbowed past Derick, but he was concentrating so hard on the scenery that he hardly noticed.’

‘At once, there was intense jostling and elbowing.’

‘That's where the kids who were fighting decided to get off too, pushing and elbowing their way past the other people who were trying to get off.’

‘More than 40 customers elbowing for bargains at a discount sale in a local supermarket last week fell down stairs where two received fatal injuries.’

‘My adrenaline kicked in and I abruptly elbowed my way through the crowd, past the insulting conductor, and back on the train.’

‘Wouldn't it be interesting if the organisation and the referees get really tough on the pulling, dragging and elbowing that passes for football.’

‘Grampa and Granma congratulate Tom on getting out of jail, and elbow past him to the breakfast table.’

‘She elbowed past Lucas and headed straight for Theo.’

‘An ensign elbowed past her into the elevator as she walked out onto the bridge.’

‘She took the bowl of chips and elbowed past us to the parlor.’

‘Which means I'm on a mission: elbowing my way past strangers, zig-zagging between cars, even occasionally breaking into a uncharacteristically moderately paced stroll.’

‘She then elbowed her way past James and into the hallway, making sure to slam the door on the way out.’

‘On the way out, Oscar bumped into another group of guards, who gave him dark looks and elbowed past.’

‘A horde of journalists was camping outside the building, and Ann had had to push and elbow her way past them.’

‘Again there was a delay at the barrier and all the leaving passengers had to elbow their way past us.’

2Treat (a person or idea) dismissively.

‘his new TV talk show was elbowed aside in the ratings war’

‘The community is conservative so we didn't exactly have queues, recalls a researcher who went from door to door seeking girls who had been elbowed out of the education system.’

‘The nominal Health Secretary rose without trace and now been elbowed aside by the Prime Minister himself.’

‘The Keystone state produced half the global supply of petroleum until Texas elbowed it aside in 1901.’

‘In the corridors of power he was seen as too close to the players, too much of a social animal and was consequently elbowed aside by the Union.’

‘The current chairman, a businessman and former police commissioner, is said to have been elbowed aside by Reilly.’

‘Clinical governance is elbowed aside as clinical priority too often takes second place to the ‘long waiter.’’

‘The fact that they have been elbowed aside by the arrival of the new company on the scene has left many bitter with the way they have been treated.’

‘In a typical yogurt aisle, the plain yogurt is elbowed aside by a panoply of trays, tubs, and tubes in which sugar, granola, and even candy have replaced some of the yogurt.’

‘With this kind of competition, Pressler can only hope he won't be elbowed aside.’

‘The play is set at a time when an indulgent old order was elbowed aside by brash, pragmatic modernisers, a process so widely witnessed in the past century that it has always seemed relevant.’

‘At some point - maybe in a year or two, after we reach 1 million users - I'll probably need to be elbowed aside.’

‘It is time to elbow them aside and fill up the galleries with the rest of us.’

‘Tall tales were woven around the 1830 Revolution, notably to the effect that the landed aristocracy had been elbowed aside by bourgeois groups.’

‘The next election, expected in only six months time, could perhaps be as important as the one of 1923 when the old Liberal party was irreversibly elbowed aside by Labour.’

‘The classics have gradually been elbowed aside in favour of more unusual music: Villa Lobos last spring, for example, and an all - American programme just before it.’

‘If the big racecourses get their way, the smaller tracks will be elbowed aside in a rush for the extra fixtures promised.’

‘If it's only the former, they risk being elbowed aside by a host of other teams out there who know what they are after and why.’

‘And I'm not entirely sure yet which is going to elbow the other aside.’

‘At ground level, a bistro and book shop have been elbowed aside to create a senselessly spacious foyer, floored in black basalt.’

‘And I sincerely doubt that they've made a systematic and concerted effort to remedy that situation since elbowing me out of the picture.’

Phrases

at one's elbow

Close at hand; nearby.

‘I had a live database of Caribbean history and culture right at my elbow, along with visiting professors.’

‘Because I think that if you're at his elbow, day in, day out, hour in, hour out, you can't expect him to be guarded all the time.’

‘You should, in the pecking order of these things, have both an open packet of local cigarettes and a battered classic travel book at your elbow.’

‘You want to find an easy chair with by a fire and have a brandy at your elbow and your feet up (along with a large circle of friends and family all gathered round in eager expectation).’

‘With spirits whirling through his Christmas, Dickens still has one hand nudging at your elbow and another just resisting a clutch at a pretty girl's skirt.’

‘I could feel the invisible billions at my elbow, also watching.’

‘And Tom started toward an edge of the group, and she followed close at his elbow, in his sandy footprints.’

‘Some wasted looking guy kept hanging around at my elbow.’

‘And pretty soon, we will end up in a circumstance, I fear, where academic researchers will find it very difficult to pursue their best and brightest ideas without a phalanx of lawyers at their elbow.’

‘I talked to a Colombian film-maker who I thought of having at my elbow, but finally the producer and I decided that with all of the actors we had on board, we really did have those voices there already.’

up to one's elbows in

1informal With one's hands plunged in (something)

‘I was up to my elbows in the cheese-potato mixture’

‘Foss recounts the time she walked into the back galley to find a colleague up to her elbows in a rubbish bin, rooting through passengers' trash.’

‘Want to be up to your elbows in grease with some hunky blokes?’

‘And there is a picture of a solo mother doing what most mothers do - standing up to their elbows in the sink and making sure their children are fed.’

‘As I sat there up to my elbows in compost, she talked me through the joys of drizzling pesto and supping a nice wee Chilean white.’

‘And Ewood fans will be able to grab an unusual souvenir thanks to the kind-hearted players who got up to their elbows in paint.’

‘But for now, while you are up to your elbows in sandpits and play dough, the world around you is overwhelmingly female.’

‘Getting up to our elbows in textures, fabrics, metals, is just as exciting to us as a palette of colors and blank canvas was to Picasso.’

‘When Dolly arrived ready for her drink I was still there, up to my elbows in steamy water, having moved only now and again to run a little more hot water in so as to keep the temperature up.’

‘We find the Dr. Hawking at work in the apartment's living room, wearing his lab coat and up to his elbows in what used to the apartment's fridge, now lying on its back and being converted into a homeostochastic chamber.’

‘I just love the idea of all these executives up to their elbows in suds washing all the cars belonging to their staff.’

‘I was also up to my elbows in acrylics - we were staying with friends who have a built in cupboard in the dining room with a rounded head: there is thus a more or less semicircular top to the thing.’

‘The sight of Ella, who a day earlier could barely find the dishwasher, up to her elbows in Fairy Liquid was worth the drive alone.’

1.1Deeply involved in (a task or undertaking)

‘They are literally up to their elbows in the science of life, and many of them have a stronger faith than most clergy.’

‘They just know the Trilateral Commission is up to their elbows in this.’

‘Roseanna sounds supportive but is up to her elbows in blood.’

‘They're up to their elbows in work for other reporters.’

‘But we're also talking about a hometown paper with the rookie Senator from New York up to her elbows in scandal taint herself.’

‘And while most of Europe is already up to their elbows in a newly released remix album, we poor North Americans are relishing an album that's already six months out of date.’

‘Yesterday I spent slaving away up to my elbows in a hot Unix shell.’

‘Once again, I'll be up to my elbows in it tomorrow, so I won't be able to prepare a fresh Scary Story.’

‘It's been a truly enjoyable break, working away like a team again, even if most of our time was spent up to our elbows in junk.’

‘The new head of Housing and Urban Development essentially has spent his career up to his elbows in roads, airports, housing, urban sprawl, and other aspects of public administration.’

Origin

Old English elboga, elnboga, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch elleboog and German Ellenbogen (see also ell, bow).